Friends, welcome to Word on Fire, Catholic Ministries. Word on Fire is an

apostolate dedicated to the mission of evangelization using media both old and

new to share the faith on every continent and to facilitate and encounter with

Christ and His Church. The efforts of Word on Fire engage the culture and bring

the transformative power of God's Word where it is most needed. Today we invite

you to join Bishop Robert Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the

warmth and light of Christ with each of us. Peace be with you. Friends, it's good

shepherd Sunday, this fourth Sunday of Easter when we consider this great

image of Jesus as shepherd. It's one of the most enduring and endearing images of

Jesus. In the whole tradition, the shepherd who protects and gathers and lays

down his life for his sheep. In fact, some of the earliest depictions we have of

the Lord show him precisely in this aspect. I've said before that we don't have

depictions of the cross till much much later in the Christian tradition, but

very early on they loved the image of the good shepherd. Well, our gospel reading

for this Sunday is extremely short. In fact, one of the shortest gospels we have in

the whole liturgical year, but it is packed with theological and spiritual

significance. We first hear of a voice. The Lord says, my sheep hear my voice. What

is it everybody about a voice? John Henry Newman said that sometimes a text can

leave us cold, but a voice can melt us. He's talking about he read an argument

in a text. He's like, yeah, I kind of got it. But then somebody maybe speaking

the same argument, somebody speaks to you. There's something about their voice

that causes the heart to melt. I think of one of my heroes, Frank Sinatra,

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